Friday, September 18, 2015

Ryker by Sawyer Bennett Review + Giveaway

The
rugged men of the Carolina Cold Fury hockey team are winning hearts once again
in another scorching novel from New York Times bestselling
author Sawyer Bennett.

The
stakes have never been higher for Carolina Cold Fury goalie Ryker Evans. With
his contract running out, he’s got a year left to prove he’s still at the top
of his game. And since his wife left him, Ryker has been balancing life as a
pro-hockey star and a single parent to two daughters. Management is waiting for
him to screw up. The fans are ready to pounce. Everybody’s taking dirty
shots—except for the fiery redhead whose faith in Ryker
gives him a fresh start.

As
the league’s only female general manager, Gray Brannon has learned not to mix
business with pleasure. And yet even this tough, talented career woman can’t
help breaking her own rules as she gives Ryker everything she’s got. She hopes
their hot streak will last forever, but with Ryker’s conniving ex plotting to
reclaim her man, the pressure is on Gray to step up and save a tender new love
before it’s too late.

~*EXCERPT*~

“I don’t even have to ask if you’re
ready to do this,” my dad says to me as we take the elevator down to the
basement level of the arena.

Leaning casually back against the
wall, I eye myself critically in the reflection of the bronzed doors and feel
confident in my wardrobe choice. Long black skirt with a lace overlay in the
same color that comes about three inches past my knees. While it hugs my figure
all the way down, it has a flared bottom and a small slit up the back. I paired
it with black fishnet stockings and trendy heels with a pointed toe. The
ruffles of a cream-color blouse peek out neck to chest from the black, buttoned
cardigan, purposely form fitting so there is no mistaking the curve of my
breasts.

No mistaking I am a woman walking
into a lion’s den.

My makeup is applied flawlessly to
enhance my pale skin and fire-red, shoulder-length hair. Said hair is styled
just the way I like it—big barrel-type waves that are set to perfection when I
put my fingers into my hair and give a good jazz-hands shake while bent over.
After flipping back up, the wild waves and curls make me look like a windblown
but stylish mess.

My look today is calculated. It
screams feminine—with a slight Victorian flair thanks to my late mother’s
brooch pinned at the base of my throat. It also screams sexy—courtesy of
fishnet stockings, a snug fit, and four-inch-high heels. Finally, it screams of
individuality, because I shunned a properly conservative suit and went with an
eclectic mix so there is no mistaking the fact that I think outside the box.

It’s why I am now the general
manager of the Carolina Cold Fury.

With my hands tucked into the
pockets of my skirt, I grin at my dad. “You don’t have to ask. I’m ready.”

His words are short and tidy. Just
three of them, but it’s his tone of voice and the emotion in his eyes that tell
me all I need to know about a father’s love for his daughter.

“Want some advice?” he asks casually
as the elevator rolls to a stop and the doors slide open.

“Sure,” I say as I pull my hands
free and follow him out, the sound of my heels clicking in unison on the
industrial tile floor with my father’s Ferragamo loafers.

“Be yourself,” he says simply as we
walk side by side to the team meeting room. It’s a stadium-style room that the
team meets in, usually to watch game film, but sometimes for relaying of
information as a group.

“Be myself?” I ask skeptically.
“That’s all the great Brian Brannon has to say to me?”

“Yes . . . be yourself. Don’t go in
that room and for one minute try to mold yourself to their expectations. I
didn’t offer you this position to do the same exact job I did. I gave it to you
because I want you to be better at it than I was, and you’re going to be
because of who you are, not who they want you to be.”

I tuck an arm through my father’s,
feeling the strength he exudes at the ripe age of fifty-eight. I can’t help the
smile on my face as I lean toward him and give a squeeze. “It’s amazing I
didn’t become a narcissistic, self-centered asshole with as much pumping up of
my esteem that you do on a daily basis.”

Dad snickers. “As if you could ever
be anything that was less than perfect.”

We turn right at the end of the hall
and the door to the meeting room comes into focus. But for the slight flutter
in my belly, there’s nothing internal to indicate how momentous this occasion
is.

To me.

To the league.

To this team.

At just thirty-one years old, I’m
getting ready to be named as one of the youngest general managers in the
league. As a woman, someone like me among these ranks is unheard of, and I’m
not going to be given a free pass just because I’m Brian Brannon’s daughter.
While I think my father is about the closest thing to God as you can get, there
are many out there who will think he’s gone off his rocker by stepping down and
appointing me as GM.

Many will think he’s showing
favoritism to a family member.

Some will think he just doesn’t care
about this team anymore.

Perhaps a few will even think he’s
just lazy and doesn’t want the headaches that come with being a president and
CEO of a professional sports team, as well as the general manager.

They’d all be wrong, though, and I
sincerely hope they believe him today. If not, fuck it. I have a job to do and
skeptics, chauvinists, purists, and otherwise backward-thinking assholes aren’t
going to stop me from achieving my goals.

To turn this team into champions.

~*REVIEW BY VANESSA*~

I am a huge fan of Sawyer Bennett if you follow
our blog and you’ll know that I get so excited to read any of her books. Ryker
was no exception and it totally delivered! Ryker is the fourth book in the Cold
Fury series and while I would really recommend reading the others to get the
characters backgrounds and stories I think reading Ryker alone will be okay.
(But seriously the others are just as awesome.) Ryker was introduced in the
last book and we learned had two daughters with an ex-wife that cheated on him
with a previous team mate; which indecently was how he got traded to the Cold
Fury Hockey team. His ex-wife decided she no longer wanted to be a mother at
the time and left his daughters with him full time and with their schedules and
his pro hockey career life was already a little chaotic but it gets even more
chaotic when he runs into the new team manager Grayson Brannon. Gray knows that
being a woman in a man’s sport wasn’t going to be easy but she knew she could
do amazing things with the team if only they’d let her not to mention that her
father who was the teams previous manager has faith in her. With trades, player
stats and contracts being up she knows she has a hard job ahead of her. What
she wasn’t expecting was to be so attracted to Ryker that they couldn’t help
but attempt a secret relationship. But things slowly start to come out and
people start seeing them together the truth must be set free. These two both
want to be together and are willing to do whatever it takes even give up the
things they’vealways wanted, but other
players who aren’t happy about trades being made are out to destroy the
happiness these two have found. With all
these problems will this couple be able to get their HEA? Read it to find out!

~*ABOUT THE AUTHOR*~

USA Today and New York Times Best-Selling Author, Sawyer Bennett is a snarky southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. Her husband works for a Fortune 100 company which lets him fly all over the world while she stays at home with their daughter and three big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Sawyer would like to report she doesn’t have many weaknesses but can be bribed with a nominal amount of milk chocolate.

Sawyer is the author of several contemporary romances including the popular Off Series, the Legal Affairs Series and the Last Call Series. She will be releasing her third book in the Cold Fury Hockey Series with Random House Loveswept, June 2015.